


here's the new anthem

by hi_hello_hey_there



Series: you don't have to say i love you (to say i love you) [15]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Flynn Can Rap Like Nobody's Business, Gen, Homework, writing a song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 03:54:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28682136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hi_hello_hey_there/pseuds/hi_hello_hey_there
Summary: "You're important, too."
Relationships: Flynn & Alex Mercer & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn & Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms)
Series: you don't have to say i love you (to say i love you) [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1942267
Comments: 9
Kudos: 82





	here's the new anthem

**Author's Note:**

> Un-beta'd and I've got a bit of a cold so if you see any errors, I'd be grateful if you pointed them out. Enjoy!

Flynn should know the boys are up to something when they wordlessly join her at her dining room table and fix wide grins on their faces. They had joined the girls at school today, seeking a change in scenery after growing bored trying to catch themselves up on years of missed pop culture at the Molinas’. She had seen the boys in the back of the music class second period and shared a knowing look with Julie, Carrie, and Nick. It still strikes Flynn as strange when she realizes she has an inside thing with Carrie Wilson and Nick Danforth-Evans of all people, but she’s getting used to it.

After school, Julie and the boys had piled into Flynn’s car and driven back to her house for a change. The girls spread out at the dining room table to do their homework for the day while Flynn gave Alex, Luke, and Reggie the go ahead to explore her house while her parents and older sister were out until they got off work. Once she put on soft instrumental music to work to, Julie and Flynn finished their work pretty quickly and since she had finally gotten her cast off, Julie had been reveling in walking around on her own.

“I’m gonna stretch my leg outside,” she says after an hour of mostly silent working.

“Be careful,” Flynn calls over her shoulder as her best friend approaches the back door.

A scoff is her answer. “Yes, _mom_.”

She hums along to the song playing as she finishes her Stats worksheet, happy to be done with math, and homework overall, for the day. She’s about to text her parents when the boys sit down. After a moment of silence, she pauses the music and asks with a laugh, “Can I help you?”

“So we’ve been thinking lately,” Luke starts, seeming just about to burst with energy.

Flynn cuts him off just to mess with him: “Only lately? Well, that explains a lot.”

For once it’s not Alex that gives her the longsuffering stare. He just gives her a high five even though it was a semi-burn to him as well. Luke rolls his eyes and says, “Really?”

“Continue,” she says with an accompanying hand motion and chuckling.

“We had a band meeting,” Reggie picks up. “And we decided we want to feature you on a song.”

“Or two. Whatever you’re comfortable with,” Alex adds, shooting her a soothing smile.

It really does nothing for how quickly her eyes begin to fill with tears. She tries to hide how suddenly she feels overwhelmed but mostly she’s focused on just how touching it is for them to think of her outside of their bandmate’s best friend. When Luke finally realizes what’s going on, he’s quick to push his seat back and regard her from a distance. “Oh, my god. Are you okay? Did we say something wrong?”

“You know how those two are with crying girls.” Alex points to Reggie whose face has assembled into something resembling a deer in the headlights: frozen in place with fear. It startles a laugh out of her and she tries to wipe the tears away but they just keep coming.

“No,” she reassures them. “I’m fine, promise. You caught me off guard is all.” She pauses a moment to suck in a breath and blow it out so her voice evens. “I guess I just want to know... I want to know why?”

“Why what? Feature you on a song?” Reggie asks, looking a little more comfortable not that she’s not actively crying. Still, Flynn only trusts herself to nod. “You mean, aside from the fact that you’re insanely talented?” She feels her face heat up at the readily given praise. It’s still a bit baffling why a band would ask their manager to be a part of their music, but Flynn is starting to reconcile herself to it. Doesn’t mean that she’s any less grateful for their offer.

Alex reaches from his spot beside her to place a gentle hand on her shaking one. “You have done so much for this band, so much for us as people. You deserve all of the recognition for that and more. Besides, you _are_ insanely talented. We’d be honored if you want to join us.”

“How many times do I have to tell you, Griffiths?” Luke reaches out across the table and grabs her other hand in his so that their fingers are curled inside one another’s palms. “ **You’re important, too.** We’d be nowhere without you.”

There’s a smile so genuine, so Luke, on his face that a fresh bout of tears makes its way to her eyes. Maybe it’s because she was feeling really stressed this week and hearing that other people were thinking of her finally sent her over the edge. Or maybe it’s because she didn’t quite realize what the boys thought of her despite Luke telling her all the time she mattered to them. Either way, she gently removes her hands from Alex and Luke’s grips and covers her face. Even if she is happy, extremely so, she knows that they have been around each other and each other only for so long, they aren’t used to all of this emoting yet. “Sorry, sorry,” she sniffles out, standing and hurrying away to grab a piece of paper towel from the pantry.

Reggie is there in an instant, poofing from where he had been sitting and ripping off a sheet for her. She dabs at her eyes and tosses it away before he holds out his arms for her, offering a hug. She falls in easily enough, an emotional burst of air leaving her lungs as she does so. He grips her tightly around the waist and tells her softly, “There’s nothing to be sorry about, dude. If anything, it’s us who should be sorry for just springing this on you with no forewarning.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Alex and Luke standing in the doorway to the pantry, concern clear on their faces. “No, it’s alright. I’ve just had a hell of a week so far.”

“And it’s only Wednesday,” Alex says, not like he’s rubbing it in, but more like he’s commiserating with her.

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” she laments, extricating herself from Reggie’s grasp and reaching for another paper towel to get the stray tear tracks off her face.

This is the moment Julie chooses to return from her walk in the backyard. There’s confusion written all over her face as she joins them until she seems to understand. “You told her without me?” she asks the boys with incredulity.

“Was this your idea, then?” Flynn asks her, bumping Julie’s shoulder with her own, still sniffling a little.

Julie wraps her arm around Flynn’s shoulders and squeezes, tipping their heads together automatically. “Luke’s, actually. We wanted to try adding a rap section to some of our songs and he immediately suggested you.”

She levels an even stare at Luke, corners of her mouth shooting up on their own. He looks bashful, head dropped towards the ground and scratching the back of his neck. “It wasn’t all me,” he says, toeing the ground. “Alex thought up the rapping idea in the first place.”

“Awe, Patterson,” Flynn responds, tapping his foot with her own. Their pantry has always been small, but with three more almost-bodies in it than usual, it definitely feels cramped. “You do care.”

Another eye roll from the lead guitarist. “Yeah, yeah.” A round of laughter raises in the room before fizzling out into comfortable silence.

“So,” Flynn finally asks, “what did you have planned for me?”

Alex launches into an explanation of a song the group has been working on that’s a little more alternative than anything they’d written with Julie. “We’re trying to connect the second verse with the last run through of the chorus for one of them, but it’s not meshing. There’s something missing.”

“We were thinking maybe we could play what we have of the song for you next time you’re at rehearsal so you can get a vibe for it and then write a rap section?” Reggie asks.

“Sounds good,” Flynn says, shooting each of them a smile.

They continue to talk logistics until her older sister, Parker, comes home and greets her and Julie with a “Hey, goobers,” before heading straight to her room to collapse. The warm and fuzzy feeling hasn’t left her stomach since they asked her. She tries to ignore it as they show her the lyrics in Luke’s song book, Alex drumming out the basic beat against the table once he’s summoned his sticks, but she finds herself grinning at nothing while Reggie absently hums his bassline as they talk.

She eyes each of the people around her dining room table. They brighten the room considerably even though they can’t be seen by most of the inhabitants of this house. It’s taken her a while to get used to this, sure, but she forgets they also had to get used to her. She’s just really glad it’s wound up like this. Julie shoots her a questioning glance while the boys talk. _Are you okay?_ her eyes say and Flynn nods her head affirmatively. 

She’s good. Really good.

**Author's Note:**

> I live for Flynn bonding with the boys. And Julie is finally out of her cast! Also, the title for this comes from Flynn’s cute little speech before Edge of Great. I really appreciate all of your very sweet comments, so thank you. Next week's story is going to... set some things up, shall we say. Speaking of setting things up: I promise I am getting to your requests, I just want to establish some things in this universe first. You'll understand in time. As always, requests are open from [this list](https://p0ck3tf0x.tumblr.com/post/98502010026/one-hundred-ways-to-say-i-love-you) except for 7, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, 26, 31, 33, 37, 38, 39, 41, 44, 48, 49, 50, 53, 57, 62, 63, 64, 65, 67, 70, 82, 83, 86, 91, 92, 98, and 99. You can leave me a comment here or message me on tumblr. Thanks for reading, lovelies, and I'll see you next week!
> 
> main: [hi-hello-hey-there](https://hi-hello-hey-there.tumblr.com/)  
> side: [toziers-token](https://toziers-token.tumblr.com/)
> 
> love, blue


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